Scripture Daily

Context No. 3180 of 4322 · Ezra

Context · Reflection

Ezra 6:1-5: in context

1Then Darius the king made a decree, and the house of the archives, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon, was searched. 2A scroll was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of Media, and in it this was written for a record: 3In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made a decree: Concerning God’s house at Jerusalem, let the house be built, the place where they offer sacrifices, and let its foundations be strongly laid, with its height sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits; 4with three courses of great stones and a course of new timber. Let the expenses be given out of the king’s house. 5Also let the gold and silver vessels of God’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple which is at Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought again to the temple which is at Jerusalem, everything to its place. You shall put them in God’s house.

When enemies challenge the rebuilding of the temple, King Darius orders the royal archives searched, and in a palace in Media a scroll is found: the original decree of Cyrus, years before, ordering that the house of God at Jerusalem be rebuilt at royal expense, and its holy vessels restored to their place.

God's providence works here through an archive. Years earlier Cyrus had decreed the temple be rebuilt; now, when enemies try to halt the work, that old decree is found in the records, and it turns the emperor's own power to protect the very work its opponents were trying to stop. God had preserved, in a foreign archive, the document that would vindicate his people at exactly the right moment. His purposes are safeguarded through means as ordinary as a filed decree, waiting to be found when needed. What looked forgotten was kept, and surfaced just in time to advance God's work.

Can I trust that God has quietly preserved what is needed to advance his purpose, and will bring it to light at just the right time?

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